The Punky Brewster Refrigerator Episode
On a very special episode of Punky Brewster...
My mother was always cautious. From an early age, she frequently warned me about the dangers lurking in our neighborhood. "Stranger danger" in all its many forms was a common topic of discussion, especially if she heard anything even remotely related to it on the local news. I wasn’t a rebellious kid, and when she warned me about something, I tended to take it seriously. But one warning that recurred with surprising regularity was about the dangers of refrigerators.
More specifically, she warned me never to get inside one. This confused me because, even though I wasn’t a big kid, there was no way I could fit into a fridge with all those shelves. When I asked for clarification, she explained that she was worried about an old refrigerator I might find outside—one that I might be tempted to hide in or play in with my friends.
It sounded silly, but when I thought about the goofy things my friends and I liked to do, I couldn’t say the odds of us trying it were zero. So I always gave any discarded fridge a wide berth whenever I spotted one on the street. Still, at home, I couldn't help but wonder—how exactly did someone get stuck in a fridge? They seemed so easy to open. Then I realized the warning wasn’t about modern refrigerators but older ones.
This became clear when on January 19, 1986, I watched Punky Brewster, specifically Season 2, Episode 16, Cherie Lifesaver. In the episode, Henry gets a new fridge but fails to remove the door from the old one, which has an exterior latch. Punky’s friend Cherie hides inside and nearly suffocates. It was a terrifying lesson in the importance of CPR—and in making sure to remove the doors from old refrigerators.
What made it so frightening was how unexpectedly the danger unfolded, especially if you weren’t fully aware of the risk. My mom had warned me about this dozens of times, yet I still didn’t see it coming.
Fortunately for future generations, these type of deathtraps became rare. In 1958, they passed legislation that switched most fridges to a magnetic latching system. This is a much safer system and accidents related to the old locking method plunged, although incidents are still happening in other parts of the world.
This episode’s story was actually chosen in a contest. It was submitted by a kid named, Jeremy Reams. Way to go, Jeremy!
The Punky episode was very scary and haunts a lot of people who saw it at the time. Its a bold choice to have a likable main character almost die, and while it had a happy ending, you couldn’t help but feel the panic and helplessness in the episode. This episode might be a little overly dramatic, but as far as Very Special Episodes go, I think it is very well done.
Punky wasn’t the only one to feature this terrifying and dangerous risk to kids. GI Joe did a PSA that tried to warn kids from hiding in old trunks or refrigerators. Not sure how I missed this, it would have been a little earlier than the Punky Brewster episode.
(If you have retro finds you would like for me to share, I want to hear them. What old useful website are still lurking on the web? Some old TV show streaming online? Old tech being brought back? Let me know.)
ONE COOL VIDEO
Punky Brewster wasn’t the only show that tried to draw attention to this danger. Almost two decades earlier, Dragnet had an episode where Joe Friday comes down pretty hard on a guy who didn’t take the door off his refrigerator.
TEN THINGS RETRO
🎥 Movies - Movies can be subjective, but a large amount of people will agree that certain films are timeless classics. But are they right? What does “timeless” mean and is it even a real thing?
⚓ Cartoons - They have been making Popeye cartoons for a long time. While the versions they made in the 70s and 80s might not be as well-remembered as the earlier versions, for many it was their first exposure to Popeye. Looking back, the logic of those decade’s Popeyes is a little odd.
📺 Television - I tend to like to watch older TV shows in the lower resolutions to have a more authentic experience. Still, I am always interested in remastered versions of the movies and shows that I love. With technology allowing upscaling, some, like Upscaled Nostalgia, have taken it upon themselves to play with converting older shows HD and beyond. The results can be mixed, but its always interesting.
🚗 Cars - You know what it is missing from your vehicle? A built-in Nintendo 64. It seems like a great reason to start loving traffic.
🎨 Art - Did you have Pee-Chee folders when you were a kid? Were yours pristine or like many did you use yours as a canvas for expression? In his recent video, Scott Serkland, gives Pee-Chee a monster makeover and in his newsletter, he makes the template available so you can do your own makeover.
📻 Home Audio - In 1987, Sony introduced kids to the world of portable audio devices with their “My First Sony” line of products. For many, this was how they enjoyed some of the first music that would come to define them. Obsolete Sony takes a look at the history of Sony’s leap into children's electronics.
🎸 Music- As you probably know, a lot of people make new music for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Linus Åkesson, like many, enjoys the sound that the NES makes and decided to not just emulate, but build a cartridge to play music on the NES as the “Family Bass.” Its was an interesting journey and the results are impressive.
🛸 Video Games - UFO 50 is a collection of 50 retro-styled single and multiplayer games from the creators of Spelunky, Downwell, Air, Land & Sea, Skorpulac, Catacomb Kids, and Madhouse. They have very effectively merged more modern gameplay into 8-bit styling. It is a blast.
🚗 Cars - Jay Leno loves cars and in this episode of Jay Leno's Garage he drives the legendary 1977 Pontiac Firebird Formula, the actual car driven by James Garner in the hit series The Rockford Files.
📺 History - A history of the color bars, the most common television test pattern out there, and what they actually do.
FEATURED RETRO COUPON
I drank so much Nestle’s Quik as a kid and still tend to keep a container of it around for when I want a childhood favorite. Two things, I don’t like that they changed the name to Nesquik and I miss the metal can it came in. Here is a coupon with no expiration date that is probably from 1985 or 1986 based on the Statue of Liberty sponsorship.
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATION
While people had been tinkering with and playing video games in Canada for much longer, the first documented commercial Canadian video game release was Les Têtards (The Tadpoles) published by Logidisque in 1982. Its an interesting story of young kids who wrote a video game and made it into the history books.
FROM THE RETROIST ARCHIVE
Let's take a moment to look back at four posts from the Retroist's past. I have been at this a long time.
One Year Ago…
🦛 The Forgotten Hungry Hungry Hippos Craze
Five Years Ago…
Ten Years Ago…
🐊 The First and Last Time my family bought Powdered Gatorade
Fifteen Years Ago…
🛁 I Still Want Me some Crazy Foam
Excellent read as always, thanks! I enjoyed the Popeye link, and your Hungry Hungry Hippo post!
Say.... did you just coin a trope? "Jump the Shark," "Cousin Oliver'd" and now "Cherie in the Fridge" for unexpectedly horrifying episodes of innocuous shows.